Convenience stores under attack by global warming zealots

Now I’ve heard everything. Talk about your “Kyoto protocol”. The original source of this silliness comes from the city of Kyoto. In June, in a bid to reduce greenhouse gases and perhaps become a nationally designated “model environmental city,” the municipal government indicated it would request convenience stores to “voluntarily refrain” from staying open all night.

No Slushee for you!

You can read the complete story here in Japan Today. The worst part about this is the complete lack of understanding about where the major energy use is. Closing the store may result in some energy savings from lighting, but the main power use, refrigeration systems, and that Slushee machine, will still operate.

No more midnight Slushee! Maybe the real reason is the “exploitation of the polar bear” on the cup.

More than 13,000 cases of women finding refuge in convenience stores across the country were reported during fiscal 2007. Nearly half of them occurred after 11 p.m. and about 40 percent were due to stalkers and molesters, the association said.

In addition, there were 6,000 cases of lost children requiring assistance and 12,000 cases of elderly people found wandering the streets alone.

The 12 companies that comprise the JFA operate around 42,000 convenience stores.

Explaining the significance of convenience stores, a JFA official said they provide a “substitute for ‘koban’ (police boxes) and streetlights in the middle of the night.”

The National Police Agency says that koban and “hashutsujo” police branch offices are located at about 13,000 places across the country, but that number is down by around 1,000 from five years earlier.

In addition, the JFA has also stated that convenience stores with limited nighttime hours would still have to keep on their refrigeration systems when closed, so the reduction in greenhouse gas emissions would be negligible.

From the Japan Times article:

Behind moves to limit 24-hour business is concern about the environmental impact of round-the-clock operations. “Definitely, 24-hour operations eat up electricity,” he said.

Although acknowledging that some people are active late at night, for example because of their jobs, Ando went on to claim “the vast majority have standard lifestyles and get up in the morning and come home from school or work and sleep at night.”

“With no time left to waste to combat global warming, we are very concerned about whether it is really good (that stores) stay lit up even past midnight,” Ando said.

Here I expected the hue and cry to be over the release of CO2 from carbonated beverages. I mean, a 64-oz Big Gulps have to have some effect, in aggregate, not to mention the methane emissions from the particular type of food typically purveyed by such establishments. A microwave burrito is probably equivalent to several cows, in the end. So to speak.

Let’s just turn-off the 24-hour society, and we’ll all quit working when the sun goes down.

You only be able to fly between about noon and 4 p.m. because the airport workers won’t show up until daybreak to get the airport and the planes ready for you, and they’ll have to get the place ready for shutdown at dusk.

But isn’t it all worthwhile, knowing that “green” zealots will be momentarily appeased?

When all retail outlets are designated as luxuries that must not operate during hours of darkness?

When retail business operations are curtailed to limit wasteful competition, eg, one grocery store per town; all other stores must shut down?

When the selling of wasteful appliances such as toasters, toaster ovens, irons, et al, is deemed a criminal offense? Of course household computers will have to go – such a waste of energy and they allow too much upsetting information from blogs and the like to enter the heads of ordinary folk. If folk want news, let them get it from approved, energy efficient newsprint media, available at your local library.

Start with a slushee, end with a new Dark Age – literally as well as figuratively.

” When the selling of wasteful appliances such as toasters, toaster ovens, irons, et al, is deemed a criminal offense? ”

You have reminded me of something…

I have to include the disclaimer,

I SWEAR I AM NOT MAKING THIS UP

because it sounds paranoid, but you can check it for yourself.

Instead of banning those evil, wasteful appliances…

how about turning over your control of them to someone else?

” Deploying the Smart Grid became the policy of the United States with passage of the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 (Title 13)…

” The term Smart power grid may best be defined as using communications and modern computing to upgrade the current electric power grid so that it can operate more efficiently and reliably and support additional services to consumers. Such an upgrade is equivalent to bringing the power of the Internet to the transmission, distribution and use of electricity – it will save consumers money and reduce CO2 emissions. ”

Here’s the scary bit

“Load adjustment

” The total load connected to the power grid can vary significantly over time.

“Although the total load is the sum of many individual choices of the clients, the overall load is not a stable, slow varying, average power consumption.

“Imagine the increment of the load if a popular television program starts and millions of televisions will draw current instantly.

“Traditionally, to respond to a rapid increase in power consumption, faster than the start-up time of a large generator, some spare generators are put on a dissipative standby mode.

” A smart grid may warn all individual television sets, or another larger customer, to reduce the load temporarily (to start up a larger generator) or continuously (in case of limited resources). ”

So there you go. “Smart Grid” includes, among other things, having chips in your appliances to allow them to be remotely controlled. “Reduce the load temporarily… or continuously” meaning shutting off power to “load” (that’s you – you’re the “load” on the grid).

Right now, you can waste energy if you want to – your choice, your bill. You can come home on a hot day and crank your air conditioner back to the last Ice Age.

A “Smart Grid” will be able to adjust your AC to a more “appropriate” level – or turn it off entirely, “temporarily or continuously.”

” Also personal preferences of customers e.g. to use only green energy, can be incorporated in such a new power grid. ”

[ Check your electrons – if there aren’t enough green electrons, you can maybe get a rebate or something ].

” 21st Century Grid:

“…Monitors and sensors throughout…”

“…Pervasive control systems…”

” — it is similar to former Vice President Al Gore’s vision for Smart Grid. “

Your Honour, I smashed up the late night convenience store to save the planet, just like those activists who vandalised a power station. Gore and Hansen said I should do it. Alcohol didn’t have anything to do with it honest.

I know that normally when someone says, “I am not making this up,” they are definitely making this up.

Those of you “served” (are you being served or are you the servant? No, never mind, I see you are a “Power Partner”) by Austin Energy in Texas are already familiar with the “Smart Grid.”

“…In return for your free thermostat, you allow Austin Energy to coordinate the “cycling” of your air conditioner with others. Because cycling keeps demand for electricity level, we cycle off power on summer days, between 4:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., when demand for electricity is highest… ”

We stop things that lurch too far off the track right away, but we give it up little by little just by simply saying ok that is not such a big change, or that does not seem invasive to my life.

Can you not feel the gentle nudging? Everyday it is another little something.

The latest is the push for even more condensed urban living, using cute terms like “walkable communities” and “sustainable living”. People buy homes for a sense of space and freedom, master of your little piece of land, away from the pressures of the urban areas and the suffocating pressure of population density.

That last vestige of liberating freedom and escape is under attack and some welcome it with open arms and many defend the loss of this basic human need as a price to pay for simply exisitng. We will let this happen, so when it is gone we cannot mourn its passing because it was us that let it die… inch by inch.

The real problem isn’t with store hours. It’s that humans have been allowed to live on top of each other. If all dwellings were only one story, there would be a finite number of places for people to live, work etc. By going up, we have in effect multiplied the available natural living space on Earth by 2,3, 5, 10 even 100 times on the same plot of land and at the same time increased the need for all that goes along with modern living by the same multiple. BTW, I live in a single family one story home so I may be slanted in my opinion.

If all of our freedoms are taken away at once, we have a war. If someone comes in and says, “Starting tomorrow, you can no longer do this, or that, and MUST do this”, that is an invasion and our military is called to defend us… or a plea is made to someone who can do something about it, like the US Military.

The real danger, the real losses of freedoms, well that is not so obvious. One small piece at a time, they take them away. It’s not a big thing. You can do without 24 hour convenience stores. It’s for the good of the planet. You can handle rolling brownouts, at least you were warned. You can handle $4 gasoline, just drive a bit less. You can handle R-134a instead of R-12 refrigerant, just use larger condensors and slightly more power for the compressor while paying twice as much.

You can use LCD instead of Plasma TVs, and everyone should be happy with 80 HP cars… you don’t NEED a V8. Little bits, little pieces.

All of these things were done one small piece at a time, and whether you agree or disagree with them doesn’t matter (I’m not being judgmental, just pointing out things that were unthinkable 50 years ago). One small piece at a time is progress, but it’s also the implementation phase of a master plan. For benign plans (ie. fighting cancer, feeding the hungry, stopping certain types of discrimination), it’s fine. For more sinister plans, it’s almost indefensible. Every step seems reasonable, at the time, and is sold to supporters very effectively.

AGW proponents are taking lessons from other hippy-era activists. They make every step believable. Every step is socially acceptable, and justifiable. Every piece is backed by rabid supporters. Each step on its own is the LAST thing, the END result, no, we have NO interest in actually promoting gay marriage, we just want to stop discrimination. There is NO slippery slope, that is just paranoid crazy talk! (again, just an example, not a statement)

And yet, every one of these things have happened. And here I am, watching as again our freedoms are taken away. In this case, more people are going willingly into it. They’ve been sold the whole package.

Starting next year we may not have much of a military to defend us, but we will have lots of people in Washington thinking very hard about how to protect us from deadly carbon dioxide.

We also won’t have to worry about investing money in the dangerous stock market, since the government will be spending our money on much more important issues – like protecting us from the evil CO2 menace.

“A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within.”
-W. Durant

Once again, the ‘Green’ movement shows that it hates economic prosperity. Businesses went to 24 hours because it made sense. I work in a hotel. If we are not full, we can sell rooms 24 hours-a-day. And often we do. This adds what we call ‘incremental monies.’ A walk-in is not planned revenue, but it is added revenue. Plus, our lights are on ALL the time in the hallways, the lobby, and in the office. And we have several freezers and refrigerators to keep our breakfast food from spoiling. Should we shut our business down to ‘conserve energy’ and “help save the planet” while we lose money and risk operational stability? We have to pay someone to be there anyway for security’s sake and service to our guests, and to run our night audit (it’s one person at my hotel, for clarity’s sake, not three). The reason places stay open 24 hours is because over the year they figure they will make more off of late night business than they will have to pay staff and other costs. That’s profit!

All such moves would do, anyway, is to harm the little guy: the hourly workers and the small business owners. So once again, without providing any new solutions to the alleged problem, the ‘Green’ movement demands action that would only harm the common man. How many millionaires do you suppose run to Seven-Eleven for a slurpy after midnight?

The comment about moderating HVAC – that is home HVAC is a bit off the mark. Although there are models on the market that have two compressors installed, a large “quick cool” and a smaller “maintenance” compressor, most HVAC systems have just one. When you come home and turn down the thermostat, the compressor starts and runs at 100 per cent until the set temperature is reached. Then it shuts off. In more expensive units the smaller compressor keeps the temperature at the set level.

So, the upshot is that turning the temp to arctic doesn’t cool the house faster, just longer to reach temp.

The Smart Grid could only turn off the compressor (and maybe leave the furnace/air handler fan running for circulation in the home) when demand was high, and allow it to run when demand was low. It’d eliminate brownouts anyway, but only at the discomfort of the ratepayer.

Warning – don’t try to run the compressor at half speed/power/efficiency. It’s not built to do that. I’m talking home systems here – not the big commercial jobs, they’re built differently.

“Imagine telling somebody twenty years ago that by 2007, it would be illegal to smoke in a pub, or bus shelter, or your own vehicle, or that there would be £80 fines for dropping cigarette butts, or that the words “tequila slammer” would be illegal, or that the government would mandate what angle a drinker’s head in an advertisement may be tipped at, or that it would be illegal to criticise religions, or homosexuality, or rewire your own house, or that having sex after a few drinks would be classed as rape, or that the State would be confiscating children for being overweight. Imagine telling them the government would be contemplating ration cards for fuel and even food, and that every citizen would be required to carry an ID card filled with private information which could be withdrawn at the state’s whim. They’d have thought you a paranoid loon.”

This is all part of a bigger picture. I understand that some folks may classify me as paranoid for what I’m about to say. That’s OK; some major U.S. corporations are equally ‘paranoid.’

Lockheed Martin corporation, for instance, which is the world’s biggest defense contractor. It is Lockheed Martin’s primary business to understand international threats.

I worked at Lockheed Martin for 30 years. After the Berlin Wall came down, a lot of Russians began emigrating to the West. Many were disillusioned, and many came for the much higher pay. Some had defected for various reasons.

Among them was a senior KGB officer, Yuri Bezmenov. Mr. Bezmenov was hired by Lockheed Martin to give presentations to employees explaining KGB [now the FSB] intelligence gathering techniques [interestingly, one of the most effective techniques was simply paying night janitors to collect discarded engineering drawings from the trash baskets]. I attended one of Mr. Bezmenov’s lectures around 1993 or ’94. at that time everyone felt that we had won the Cold War. But as the Soviets say, “Two steps forward, one step back.” They have never accepted unconditional surrender. And they have never given up.

Mr. Bezmenov was highly persuasive. His presentation included the KGB’s continuing program of “demoralization.”

This program was begun after the Korean war, when the Soviets realized that they could not forcibly impose communism on the West militarily. That program has been successful beyond the Soviets’ wildest dreams. AGW/climate catastrophe is only one part of the ongoing demoralization program. Mr. Bezmenov describes the program here: click

This interview is essentially the same as Bezmenov gave fifteen years ago. It still fits the facts we see happening today.

The Bezmenov interview is from 23 years ago. He said the US had “a few years” to avert the rise of communism, and the collapse of the US economy into Marxist/Leninism. He was wrong. That battle was won by the west when the Soviet Union collapsed in ’89.

What we should be more worried about, it seems to me, is the slow creep into a new, 21st century form of totalitarianism based on religious, health and environmental fear.

We’ve moved on from right/left, socialist/capitalist issues, and if we continue to think in those terms, we will suffer.

Several comments who focus on potential harm from restrictions and denials of services and activities, miss the gravest danger we face. There is an onslaught against the freedom to think and express ideas that contradict perceived orthodoxies for culture, governance, science, religion and the liberal arts by those who are determined to destroy democracy and capitalism.

Fanatical Muslims, who kill and terrorize wantonly, justify their actions with a perverted form of Islam. Almost all non-democratic nations deny freedom of expression because controlling thought in conjunction with brute force is most effective means of maintaining control of people.

In Western democracies there is compelling evidence of progress towards the enslaving form of socialism Orwell believed to be inevitable. This evolution is driven by controlling thought and expression.

Lindzen’s new paper, “Climate Science: Is It Currently Designed To Answer Questions?”, describes the process by which a cabal of the UN, NGOs, and politicians and special interests have corrupted scientists, professional societies and organizations and their scientific journals, and government agencies. Those who dare to challenge their orthodoxy are defamed, their research is repressed, and their research funding and jobs are jeopardized.

Obama’s campaign tactics are another example of repressing speech. His campaign, through surrogates have attempted to stop radio stations from broadcasting critical programming. Unfriendly blogs regularly suffer DOS attacks. He attempted to prevent a public university library from releasing documents concerning his participation in the Chicago Annenberg Challenge. Now prosecutors in St Louis and other authorities are threatening to prosecute persons and organizations that put out purportedly false information about Obama. Simultaneously, the Obama campaign [snip – substitute puts out its own information campaign] . All of this is enabled by a corrupt MSM who make up news and lie about, disguise and withhold facts in order to get Obama elected.

Public education is being compromised. Indoctrination is replacing teaching. It will be far worse if Obama is elected. This is how entire generations are corrupted.

All of these examples have a common thread: thought control and limitation of expression. The process is gradual and accomplished by desensitizing people to persistent encroachment on their rights. Pandering, propaganda corruption are the tools of deceit.

I am too old to worry about being personally impacted by the coupe d’tat that is under way. Loss of our traditional rights and privileges is inevitable unless an active majority of citizens wakes up and stops the process now.

“.. we are very concerned about whether it is really good (that stores) stay lit up even past midnight,” Ando said…”

Umm? No, he isn’t. If he were VERY concerned about this he would be incandescent about street lights. But he’s not. So it’s just something to say to the press when the focus group picks another target to keep the Eco-brand in front of the public. Move along, nothing to see here…

Oh, and I wonder about Lockheed Martin’s primary business being ‘to understand international threats’. I always thought its primary business was to make money by selling weapons. I may be reading a bit much into the original post, but it struck me that if I wanted an accurate view about the environmental threat posed by 24-hour stores I wouldn’t ask an enviro-politician, and if I wanted an accurate view about east-west military threats I wouldn’t ask the military/industrial complex, on either side of the curtain…

I am surprised that no one has mentioned that when a nearby convenience store is closed, many consumers will be driving longer distances to find an open store that has what the consumer wants when he wants it. So any savings from closing a particular store has to be offset by the additional fuel consumption from consumers driving to find an open store.
I cannot say that I have driven long distances to find an open convenience store, but I have driven many times to locate a 24-hour pharmacy.

Bezmenov predicted exactly what has been happening over the last two decades. Read the financial news this morning if you doubt it.

New York Times – September 30, 1999

In moving, even tentatively, into this new area of lending, Fannie Mae is taking on significantly more risk, which may not pose any difficulties during flush economic times. But the government-subsidized corporation may run into trouble in an economic downturn, prompting a government rescue similar to that of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s.

‘From the perspective of many people, including me, this is another thrift industry growing up around us,” said Peter Wallison a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ”If they fail, the government will have to step up and bail them out the way it stepped up and bailed out the thrift industry.”

I have often wondered what percent of the work force works evenings and nights. For the airlines and transit systems, night is their big maintenance time. I know, I’ve worked for both. Allot of mechanics,fuelers,and cleaners wouldn’t mind having to shutdown for the night! I don’t think many night workers actually enjoy the schedule they have, it’s usually because of low seniority that they are working the shift their on.

“.. we are very concerned about whether it is really good (that stores) stay lit up even past midnight,” Ando said…”

” Umm? No, he isn’t. If he were VERY concerned about this he would be incandescent about street lights. But he’s not. So it’s just something to say to the press when the focus group picks another target to keep the Eco-brand in front of the public. ”

The first thing that came to mind when I read this artical is that there are some cultural filters at work here. The Shijiku area of Tokyo not withstanding, most Japanese cities roll up the sidewalks right after normal work hours end. By 8 PM, the rare 7-11 really does become the only safe haven, aside from the occational police box. You can drive thru major urban areas and find one or two bars as the only lights on…and the Japanese like it that way. The core of the Japanese culture is very conservative…conforming is expected. Yes, to us this artical appears to be about AGW…but I suspect that a major portion is really about “Why don’t you close up and go home at night like the rest of us?”
cdl

One of the encouraging aspects of mass computerization has been the relative lack of intrusiveness as compared with capabilities. We’ve all read and watched science fiction versions of the takeover by machines and encroaching big brotherhood.

But it never really happened. Computers greatly increased and improved employment. Corporations snooped, but did so to gather data to turn a buck, not to blackmail a man into obeisance.

Even public cameras did not take away our freedoms, they just resulted in a lot of bank robberies and other crimes being solved and greater public safety. (And if you get a ticket in the mail for running a red light, you’ll get little sympathy off of me.)

We gained the ability to track via bug, but all we did, mainly, was to chip our pets so they could be found when lost.

Who would have thought Free Man would have been so moral, so responsible relative to enhanced capabilities?

But now we start to see a very disturbing trend. An intrusive, insidious control by the self-righteous. If these dangerous bozos get their way, they’ll be writing us right into the science fiction horror books. They are to be stopped in their tracks. We have only our vote to stop them. Use it.

One simple solution: make daylight savings time year-round, and also enact double and triple daylight savings. If the populace can forced to get out of bed earlier and earlier, everybody will be too tired to stay up late.

btw, my favorite inconvenience store name is one in McMinnville, OR: the McMiniMart.

Yep, the “Eco-Freaks” are having a field day with our collective freedoms. Oh, and to Mike Dubrasich’s comment about Daylight Savings Time, the original intent was to allow folks in the agrarian businesses more “daylight” to work in the fields and related industries. As we’ve become more mechanical and electronic (read indoor work) in nature, we run lights and HVAC systems MORE thus burn up any savings we initially gained with the time change. If you want to take advantage of the “extra” daylight in the summer months just change your work schedule (called flex time in most businesses) and please leave MY natural sleep cycle ALONE! Why can’t folks see that the time change is merely cutting something off of one end and tying it on the other? Since I’ve moved to Korea to work I do not have to suffer the traumatic “spring-forward” shock to my system every April. Man, I can’t tell you how nice that is!

Let’s see, we have: 1) energy prices which have skyrocketed and remain high (though oil prices have dropped a bit recently), 2) a U.S economy in a tailspin over the mortgage mess, threatening economies worldwide, and on top of everything we have 3) the AGW fraudsters screaming that we have to reduce our “carbon” output immediately, passing idiotic and costly laws, etc. Strike three. Stone age 2, here we come. Which is what AGWers want, of course.